Abstract Book of the 9th World Conference on Research in Education
Year: 2025
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Daily Stress and School Adjustment among Vulnerable Children at Community Child Centers in South Korea
Prof. Dr. Rae Hyuck Lee
ABSTRACT:
Community child centers (CCC) aim to promote the healthy development of children from vulnerable groups and provide them with comprehensive support, including after-school care and education services, play and entertainment services, and meal services. Since most of the children at CCCs are of school age, academic interest in school adjustment among them is increasing. Daily stress among children at CCCs is one of the risk factors for school adjustment. Thus, based on the stress process theory, this study verifies the influence of daily stress on school adjustment through inattention and social withdrawal among children at CCCs. Using a sample of 575 children from the Child Panel Survey of CCCs, data analyses were conducted with the PROCESS Macro method’s Model 6. The findings are as follows. First, children’s daily stress had a negatively significant influence on school adjustment. Second, both inattention and social withdrawal among children mediated the influence of daily stress on school adjustment. Finally, the influence of daily stress on school adjustment was serially dual-mediated through inattention and social withdrawal. In that, the level of daily stress increased the level of inattention, which in turn increased the level of social withdrawal and finally decreased the level of school adjustment. Based on the findings, this study presents evidence-based strategies that could help the school adjustment of children at CCCs.
Keywords: community child centers, daily stress, inattention, school adjustment, social withdrawal